A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 1497-1499

E.G. Ravenstein, E.G. Ravenstein

• Publisher: Hakluyt Society
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317187776
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Translated and Edited, with Notes, an Introduction and Appendices. Includes also letters of King Manuel and Girolamo Sernigi, 1499, and early seventeenth-century Portuguese accounts of da Gama's first voyage. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1898. Owing to technical constraints it has not been possible to reproduce the following maps which appeared in the first edition: 'Natal to Malinde', 'The West Coast of India', 'Africa, from the Cantino Chart', 'Africa and India, from Canerio's Chart', and 'The Indian Ocean, according to the "Mohit"'.

Appendices.

Dom Manuel the Fortunate, King of Portugal, 1495-1521.

From “Leitura nova” (1° de . Memdouro) in the Torre do Tombo.

The signature is that of the King: – “Rev.”

Appendix A.

__________

Two Letters of King Manuel, 1499.

THE first of these letters is addressed to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, of Castile, whose daughter, Dona Isabella, King Manuel had married in October 1497.¹ The letter is dated July 1499, and may have been written immediately after the arrival of Coelho’s vessel on July 10.

The draught, or copy, of this letter in the Torre do Tombo² has been published by A. C. Terçeira de Aragão in the Boletim of the Lisbon Geographical Society. VI, 1886, p. 673. It was published a second time in Alguns Documentos do Archivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Lisbon, 1892, p. 95. There are several omissions in the latter version, due probably to the illegibility of the manuscript. In our rendering of this valuable document, all passages omitted in Alguns Documentos are printed in italics, while attention is directed to other differences by means of foot-notes.

The draught of the letter addressed to the “Cardinal Protector” also exists in the Torre do Tombo,¹ but is evidently very illegible, for the text published by Terçeira de Aragão is full of blanks. The original, as also the letter to Pope Alexander VI, to which reference is made, may possibly be discovered in Rome. The letter is dated August 28, 1499, that is, the day before Vasco da Gama’s supposed return to Lisbon. It was certainly written after the arrival of the S. Gabriel, for it refers to the “Moor of Tunis” or Monçaide, to the “Jew”, who subsequently became known as Gaspar da Gama, and to the men carried off from Calecut, none of whom is likely to have been on board Coelho’s small vessel.²

The “Cardinal Protector” can be identified with D. Jorge da Costa, a man of mean extraction, whom Dona Catharina, the virgin daughter of King Duarte, and sister of King Afonso IV, appointed her chaplain, and who subsequently rose to high dignities in the Church, until, finally, the Pope bestowed upon him a cardinal’s hat. King John took a dislike to the cardinal, who went to reside at Rome; but King Manuel had a high opinion of his wisdom, and soon after his accession, in 1495, he invited him, through Pedro Correa,³ his special ambassador to the Court of Rome, to return to Lisbon. The cardinal declined this invitation, pleading his great age and infirmities as an excuse, but ever afterwards attended most faithfully to the King’s business with the Pope.

I.—King Manuel’s Letter to The King and Queen of Castile, July 1499.

Most high and excellent Prince and Princess, most potent Lord and Lady!

Your Highnesses already know that we had ordered Vasco da Gama, a nobleman of our household, and his brother Paulo da Gama, with four vessels to make discoveries by sea, and that two years have now elapsed since their departure. And as the principal motive of this enterprise has been, with our predecessors, the service of God our Lord, and our own advantage,¹ it pleased Him in His mercy to speed them on their route. From a message which has now been brought to this city by one of the captains,² we learn that they did reach and discover India and other kingdoms and lordships bordering upon it; that they entered and navigated its sea, finding large cities, large edifices and rivers, and great populations, among whom is carried on all the trade in spices and precious stones, which are forwarded in ships (which these same explorers saw and met with in good numbers and of great size) to Mecca, and thence to Cairo, whence they are dispersed throughout the world. Of these [spices, etc.] they have brought a quantity, including cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and pepper, as well as other kinds, together with the boughs and leaves³ of the same; also many fine stones of all sorts, such as rubies and others. And they also came to a country in which there are mines of gold, of which [gold], as of the spices and precious stones, they did not bring as much as they could have done, for they took no merchandise with them.⁴

As we are aware that your Highnesses will hear of these things with much pleasure and satisfaction, we thought well to give this information. And your Highnesses may believe, in accordance with what we have learnt concerning the Christian people whom these explorers reached, that it will be possible, notwithstanding that they are not as yet strong in the faith or possessed of a thorough knowledge of it, to do much in the service of God and the exaltation of the Holy Faith, once they shall have been converted and fully fortified (confirmed) in it. And when they shall have thus been fortified in the faith there will be an opportunity for destroying the Moors of those parts. Moreover, we hope, with the help of God, that the great trade which now enriches the Moors of those parts, through whose hands it passes without the intervention of other persons or peoples, shall, in consequence of our regulations (ordenandos) be diverted to the natives and ships of our own kingdom, so that henceforth all Christendom, in this part of Europe, shall be able, in a large measure, to provide itself with these spices and precious stones. This, with the help of God, who in His mercy thus ordained it, will cause our designs and intentions to be pushed with more ardour [especially as respects] the war upon the Moors of the territories conquered by us in these parts, which your Highnesses are so firmly resolved upon, and in which we are equally zealous.

And we pray your Highnesses, in consideration of this great favour, which, with much gratitude, we received from Our Lord, to cause to be addressed to Him those praise...